"Good Morning and Merry Christmas!"
Harriet shrieked and fell out of bed, landing in a very undignified heap on the floor, tangled in her bedsheets.
"Wake up, wake up!" Millicent was yelling, shaking the others awake. "There is presents and cheer!"
"Ugh! How are you this exited in the morning?" Elizabeth grumbled. "I know it's Christmas but you could still let me sleep in."
Elizabeth was not a morning person. That much had been clear from the start of the school year. There had been several incidents of her running into the great hall with toothpaste on her cheek and her tie undone so she was on time for breakfast. This was followed by her walking to class with the others whilst scarfing down toast or anything else she could carry.
At the current moment, Millicent was walzing around the room singing a very out of tune rendition of Yuletide cheer. The only thing that made it bearable was Amina Cheng joining in halfheartedly with her more than passable singing voice. The girl sang with the voice of a siren.
Harriet took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Normally when she was yelled at that loudly, she had done something wrong and should probably run. She untangled herself from the mass of bedsheets and speedwalked into the bathroom. Christmas was decidedly not her favourite time of year. It was snowing aswell. That meant cold and wet feet. The Dursleys had never bothered to buy her proper winter boots or at least new shoes. Or a coat. She usually dealt with Dudley's hand me down jackets that were so large, they did nothing against the drafts of icy air that swept around.
Another thing that really sucked was watching Dudley open up all his presents so uncaringly, while she pretended to be grateful about a 50p coin. That and watching him ruin most of them really quickly. The memory of that almost made her regret responding to his letter and left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth that the mintiness of the toothpaste she was using couldn't seem to overpower. She spat it out and scrubbed her face angrily with cold water. Some people just didn't know how lucky they were.
Speaking of presents, she really hoped the others would like what she had gotten them. She probably wouldn't be around to watch them open them. She didn't want to ruin their fun by sitting around glumly and empty handed. Maybe she'd spend the day in the library. There wouldn't be many people there. And no one was likely to disturb her wallowing in sadness.
A sharp knock on the door nearly made her jump out of her skin.
"Hurry up in there!" It was Millicent. "Or don't you want to open your presents?"
Presents? Did Millicent just say presents?
"I have presents?" She asked tentatively, praying she hadn't misheard.
"Duh!" Milicent replied. Harriet could hear the grin. "You didn't think we'd all forgotten you, did you?"
Harriet stood there shocked. She had presents! Shyly, she cracked open the door and peered around.
"There we go!" Millicent cheered, grabbing her by the arm. "Now come on!"
She was dragged over to the sparkling, glittering tree in the corner of the dormitory. The second she had sat down, Amina shoved a parcel with green wrapping into her hand.
"Mine first!" She insisted.
"O - okay!" She said, carefuly peeling at the tape. The wrapping paper fell away to reveal a black notebook. Despite it's size it still felt pretty heavy. Harriet opened it gently. The paper was a soft creamy colour.
"Th- thank you!" Harriet was at a loss for words. She gave Amina a hug, hoping to convey her gratitude.
"Mine next! Mine next!" Elizabeth said exitedly, holding out another package.
With shaking hands, Harriet opened this one in the same manner as the first. She still couldn't believe it. A thick woolen scarf appeared. It was a dark green with some golden lilies curling their way across it. Elizabeth was tackled into a hug aswell. Harriet was having trouble holding back the happy tears.
"Here's my gift to you!" Millicent gave a chuckle as she pressed the messily wrapped parcel into Harriets hands.
Millicent had gotten her a wand-holster. It was made of dark leather and had adjustible straps and therefore several ways you could wear it. Harriet opted for around her forearm. She had a tendency of shoving her wand up her sleeve when she wasn't using it anyway. She thanked Millicent graciously.
She almost regretted the hug. Millicent was very strong and bruised ribs were a trend that one didn't need to bring back.
Harriet was still stammering her thanks on the way to breakfast and long after the other girls had happily opened their gifts.
"I wish the owl post was faster," Millicent moaned. "Then we'd have been able to open all our presents in one go!"
"You really don't like waiting, do you?" Amina chuckled at her friends antics. She pulled her long, straight dark hair back into a ponytail and pulled the cereal towards her. She tended to eat light in the mornings.
Meanwhile, Harriet was enjoying all the variety the breakfast table had to offer. It all tasted so good!
"I still don't understand how you can eat that much!" Elizabeth commented offhandly, causing Harriet to pause. Was she eating too much?
"I get it." Millicent said, piling bacon onto her plate. "Bon appetit, mes amies!"
Harriet shrugged and continued to eat. If Millicent was eating that much, she could too.
A few hours later, their owls swept in and placed their remaining gifts on their beds. Harriet who hadn't expected any more gifts, was hit in the face (luckily by one of the softer packages) when Hedwig accidently dropped it.
"Honestly, Harriet," giggled Millicent, "You'd think that you had never gotten presents before judging by the look on your face!"
Then realizing the way Harriet was looking around the room. "Oh."
Amina paused in unwrapping a brightly coloured box. "You really haven't gotten presents before this?"
Harriet shook her head and looked at her feet.
"Oh Harriet!" Elizabeth wrapped her in a hug. "That's horrible! No wonder you were almost in tears earlier!"
"It's okay." Harriet muttered. She didn't really want to talk about this right now.
Amina, noticing how awkward she felt, said, "Let's open our other presents and make this the best Christmas ever!"
"Yes!" Millicent exclaimed catching on after a quick elbow in the ribs. "We'll drink hot choclate in the great hall, build a snowman in the courtyard and try to enchant snowflakes so they don't melt!"
"I don't think our charms skills are that good yet!" Elizabeth said, tossing a pillow in her direction.
"Well there's nothing to stop us trying!" Millicent shot back, along with the pillow.
"So, presents!" Amina declared and got back to unwrapping the box.
Millicent followed suit. Elizabeth sent a glance in Harriet's direction to check if she was okay, before doing the same. Harriet smiled seeing how excited her friends were about this or that, and turned her attention to the packages on her bed. She studied them.
One of them was from Pansy. Harriet could tell by the elegant loopy handwriting that formed her name and the choice of light pink wrapping paper with a pansy pattern.
The one in brightly coloured wrapping paper with a card containing two short messages in almost identical handwriting was probably from the twins. There was a third and fourth message in two handwriting styles she didn't recognize.
A longish package in messy wrapping was from Hagrid and a very neatly wrapped present with a perfectly centred bow was from Hermione.
Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle had apparently combined their efforts, both in gifting and wrapping. The wrapping paper looked like a mess next to the neatly wrapped gift with the Malfoy house seal on it in green wax.
There were also two unkown gifts, lying next to the others. One was in multicolored wrapping and one looked like a standard parcel sent by the post. Both of them were fairly large. She'd pay them more attention later.
She started with Pansy's gift. The wrapping paper had another pattern on the inside. This one was silver with daisies. Inside was a beautiful quill made from a dark blue feather and a steel tip. There was also a pot of ink that supposedly changed colour everytime you wrote with it. Harriet couldn't wait to use it. Colour changing ink! That was awsome! She unfolded the card. It contained a short message.
Dear Harriet,
I hope you like your gift.
I collaborated with Amina and we figured you'd need something to document your findings on various topics. We know you love to read. Both the notebook and the quill have indestructible charms on them (Not our work, don't worry) so don't worry if you drop them or Hedwig pecks at them (My cat scratches my things all the time). Anyway, I hope you have an amazing Christmas at Hogwarts.
Pansy
Harriet picked up the card from the twins first. You should always read everything first when it came to them. If not, the results were a tad on the wierd side.
Harriet,
How are you?
We're doing amazing. Packing on the pounds through mums cooking!
Gnomes in the garden are back at it too.
Think we should give them hats as a send off gift? Mum says the can't stay.
Well they are wrecking the garden.
That's too bad really.
So, this gift isn't dangerous. No need to worry about explosives or anything changing colour.
We wouldn't put that stuff in the same packages as the other gifts now would we.
We're not lunatics.
That's debatable.
Well we're not idiots.
You sure about that?
We would write more but mum and Charlie want to add something.
Happy Christmas Harriet and lots of cheer for the new year!
Fred and George
So that was who the other messages were from. Why would Mrs. Weasley and Charlie (a.k.a. the twins older dragon tamer brother) want to write something. She turned her attention to the page.
Harriet,
Fred and George told me you're not expecting anything this year! We can't have that. Especially not when you're such a good friend to my boys. I hope you can come stay with us at some time, but I understand that you and Ronald don't get along.
Ronald? That was weasels real name? She was going to have so much fun with that.
I've included some small gifts. I hope you enjoy them. Merry Christmas.
Molly Weasley
Hello Harriet,
I'm not good at writing so, Happy Chrismas! I hope you like the present.
Charlie
Charlie's note was very short and straight to the point. That could have something to do with it being squeezed onto three square centimetres of space.
Gently, Harriet began to unwrap the gifts. A soft, dark green sweater with a white H on the front and some homemade fudge which tasted like hugs and happiness, a book on dragons that was slightly charred in some places and a small bag of pranking supplies. A fanged frisbee, ever bouncing boomerangs (two of them) and some other bits and bobs.
Hagrid's present contained a wooden flute. The note wasn't quite readable but it was very well-wishing. Harriet couldn't remember telling anyone she wanted to learn to play an instrument, but she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak. She awkwardly tried to blow a note. Flinching, she put the flute down.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed to the other girls, who all had their hands over their ears.
"Maybe practice when we're not in the room?" Millicent suggested.
Harriet nodded. "Sounds good."
"I have a book you can borrow if you like." Amina tossed her hair back. "My parents wanted me to learn to play when I was a kid."
"If you don't mind..." Harriet said.
"Sure!" Amina smiled brightly.
Harriet nodded her thanks. She pulled Hermione's gift towards her. Two books. One on maths and one called 'Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed'. Harriet chuckled at the note attached to the second book.
Hello Harriet,
Merry Christmas! I hope you're not going to use too many of these spells. You could get in serious trouble.
Anyway, I hope you're all having a nice Christmas at Hogwarts!
Hermione
Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle had gotten her a fair amount of sweets and other snacks. It would take her months to eat those, even if someone started stealing her food. She still made a mental note to hide it all. Possibly, to also charm the environment to stop anyone except her from finding them. If she could. Only if she could.
She picked up the one from Draco. It looked and smelled expensive. Harriet briefly considered licking the wrapping paper to see if it tasted expensive too. She decided against it. People already considered her wierd enough. She unwrapped it instead. The paper fell away to reveal a black box with a very official looking crest on it. Carefully, she lifted the lid off. Inside lay a notebook, but a very fancy one that had already been written in by several people apparently. She peered at it intensely as if she would find something to give away what it was and where it came from. Nothing. Seriously, another mystery? Not that she minded but she still had one to figure out. A note dropped out from inbetween the yellowed pages.
Narcissa,
Please give this to Harriet when she starts Hogwarts. We're leaving this in your care.
Lilly
Harriet almost choked on air. This had belonged to her mother? Flipping through it, she tried to find another note. A scribble on the side of a page. Anything! There was nothing. She placed the book in her bedside drawer. She'd take a closer look later.
She grabbed the standard parcel first. Opening it, she caught a short whiff of Aunt Petunias perfume. The A5 envelope inside contained a generic ASDA christmas card and two signatures. Petunia's and Dudley's. Dudley had seemingly been working on his handwriting a bit.
There were two letters as well and two small packages.
Harriet decided to read those.
Dear Harriet,
I would like to apologise for being horrid these past Christmases. You don't have to accept it and I understand if you won't.
Vernon and I have gotten a divorce so we will be moving North, closer to where your mother and I grew up. It will give us all a fresh start. One we need.
I hope you enjoy your gifts. It was the most I could do right now.
Petunia
Harriet almost whooped loudly. No more Vernon! HALLELUJAH! And they were moving away from him. She wouldn't have to see him ever again!
She picked up Dudley's letter.
Hello Harriet,
Merry Christmas! I'm sorry I was a jerk to you all the time. Mum's taking me out of Smeltings. I'm going to a new school. Mum hasn't said which one yet. We went to see the flat we'll be living in. It's really small. I don't really like it but we're living there now.
From Dudley
Harriet unwrapped the smaller package first to be greeted by one pair of colourfully striped socks and one pair of red socks with a panda pattern. They were her size too! The wrapping paper of the bigger package peeled away to reveal a coat. The material looked waterproof and it felt thick, like a fleece coat. She felt her face pulling into a smile. Maybe this could work out.
Gently, Harriet folded both gifts and placed them in her wardrobe space. She shared one with Pansy and was glad that she didn't take up too much space.
She glanced around the room. The other girls were chatting away about some of the things they had recieved. Amina was particularly excited about some records from the Wierd Sisters (a favourite band of hers).
Before she joined them, she decided to open her last gift. Card first, as always.
Hello Harriet,
I took this from your parents house the night they were killed.
Not creepy at all.
It must not fall into the wrong hands. Professor Dumbledore especially must not know of it's existence.
Why send it to Hogwarts then? And why as a Christmas gift.
This package contains an invisibility cloak. It once belonged to your father, whom I was close friends with before his death.
Whaaaaat?
Keep it secret. Keep it safe. Use it well.
-Moony
Harriet started at the card for a long second before shoving the package into her trunk and kicking that under the bed. Questions exploded in her head.
Who was Moony? Why send her an invisibility cloak? Why now? And why ask her to keep it a secret? Was she helping a criminal? Also, what in the world was the bigger picture here?
Most importantly, what was for lunch?
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Longest chapter I have ever written. I hope you're happy.
Anyways, thank you to all my readers (as always).
XOXO Drachma